[noncom]

Hi all

I'd like to build/buy my first General Purpose HTPC (currently I have a mix and match of WD TV, PVR, NAS, Laptop, DVD player etc).

This would need to be quiet enough for the main living room on an open shelf under the TV, and for environmental reasons, preferably one that runs on quite low power and can be shut down/woken up as necessary.

Media will probably be stored on the Qnap NAS in another room transferred via Gigabit ethernet over mains.

I want to add HD TV tuners (for UK Freeview ie DVB-T2), at least two and probably 3-4. It would be used to replace our PVR for all TV viewing and recording, hence the requirement for proper Shutdown/Hibernate/Wakeup automatically.

Also, I'd like to be able to use it as a Blu-Ray player, but I don't know if this is really worthwhile. I could just rip Blu-Rays onto the Network from my laptop and play them that way, but for rental films it's much nicer just to pop a disc into a player and go straight away. As an alternative, could I play the Blu-rays directly from my laptop and stream them in real-time across the network to the TV? How would Menu features/pausing etc work if I did this?

I think the closest group I can find from the "What Group Do I Belong To" thread is #6, since I'm not interested in 3D, but there's no mention of TV watching/PVR functions there.

Any advice on how realistic this all is would be welcome. I know XBMC Frodo isn't properly out yet, so I'll need to check out the TV features in that and Argus TV to make sure it really will replace our PVR before I build, but it's useful to plan ahead anyway!

I liked the look of the Zotac AD05 Blu-ray, but wondered if a self-build would be better/cheaper? The Zotac doesn't seem to have capability for internal tuners so they'd all have to be USB.

Thanks
Andy

[PobjoySpecial]

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[Busenheimer]

HDHR and TVHeadend is kind of a PITA, especially the prime model.

[noncom]

Thanks for the replies.

I really don't want to leave a server running 24/7 just to record TV. (The NAS shuts down at night to save power, money and the planet). Surely it's possible to get a PC to wake up when a timer is about to record something? My current PVR does it after all, and what's that except a low-spec computer?

Why do you suggest leaving native Blu-ray to a separate player? Again, surely a decent spec PC is capable of matching a dedicated device? Isn't it?

Interesting suggestion about running TVHeadend on the Qnap - I didn't think that was possible, as it's proprietory firmware. How would that work?

To be honest, I really only want to do this if I can end up with ONE device to play all my media in the living room, and have it accessible from other parts of the house (either from laptops or cheaper HTPCs). If the technology's not there yet to do this, I'll probably wait a couple of years until it is.

Please understand, I don't mean to question your knowledge - I'm a newb to this and asking for advice. It just seems like it OUGHT to be possible in this day and age to have one computer to play everything rather than a mish-mash of PVR + DVD/Blu-ray + Media streamer for music etc.

[mctubster]

I have spent a lot of time on PVR / XBMC. Still using mythtv for backend (recording) and frontend (playback), on the same box in my case. It is rock solid and just works. My remote allows me to jump between XBMC and mythtv as required

I wouldn't bother capping bluerays!? Just play the disc or use a 1080p streaming service using iTunes or Vudu etc

If you are worried about power just have a spin down timer on the discs, or buy the latest Greenies from WD, that idle at 3-4W spinning from mem.

My all in one idles at 100W, but it is older tech, has two old PCI DVB cards, 5 disks and so on. I could get to 70W with usb tuners I guess, but that would be it.

[DavidT99]

Bluesy playback is a pain with all the protection systems in place. It used to be that AnyDVD would enable playback on an HTPC but now we have Cinavia even that is going to stop.